Having profiled Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY-15) and followed his candidacy when he first ran for Congress in 2020, we caught up with the congressman to discuss some of his accomplishments in D.C., challenges he faces to enacting more legislation, and the topic on which he has seemingly received the most vocal pushback – Gaza.

 

Ranked the most productive freshman legislator in the 117th Congress by the Center for Effective Law, it’s no surprise that fire safety has been among Torres’s top priorities. “The Bronx has been home to the four deadliest fires in New York City in the past 30 years,” he said, adding that he helped pass laws that empower the U.S. Fire Administration to investigate the country’s most fatal fires so that the federal government can translate lessons learned into national standards of fire prevention and fire safety.

 

“From 2018 to 2023, there’s been a 900% rise in lithium-ion battery fires, creating an unprecedented crisis in fire safety,” Torres said, adding that he led the passage of a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would have established mandatory safety standards for such batteries in e-mobility devices. but Sen. Ted Cruz filibustered the vote in the Senate.

 

Despite serving in the House Minority in the 118^th Congress, Torres said he co-led a bill which passed in both chambers of Congress, establishing a special envoy to Israel to support the Abraham Accords. He also co-led a bipartisan bill, now also passed, to enhance Secret Service protection for presidential nominees in the wake of the first assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump, and another bill requiring the intelligence community to investigate and report on the ongoing genocide against Uyghur Muslims in the People’s Republic of China.

 

On climate change, with Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Torres secured a $50 million environmental justice grant to be administered by Fordham University to various community-based organizations, the largest such grant received by a Bronx-based institution, and also with Schumer, secured funding for a community-driven, envisioning process for the reimagining the Cross Bronx Expressway.

“I’m on a mission to cap the Cross Bronx Expressway, because there’s no initiative that would do more to improve the air quality and life expectancy of The Bronx,” Torres said. Once again with Schumer, he said he secured $100 million for the green redevelopment of the Hunts Point Terminal Market, which produces a quarter of New York City’s produce.

 

Regarding senior citizens, “When New York City was threatening to transport hundreds of thousands of seniors from Medicare to Medicare Advantage against their will, I was one of the few elected officials in the City who stood up for the retirees and defended their right to traditional Medicare,” Torres said. The congressman has also introduced laws aimed at public safety and gun control, among other topics.

 

With Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81), profiled ahead of his 2022 reelection bid and who is also up for reelection on Nov. 5, and Council Member Eric Dinowitz (C.D. 11), Torres said he co-led the campaign to prevent the construction of a temporary, 20-acre, 34-seat cricket stadium in Van Cortlandt Park, a proposal of the Adams administration which reportedly would have caused parking shortages, environmental issues, and lack of access to playing areas for locals for around 6 months.

 

At the time, there were concerns the proposal was not going through the required process of public review and park alienation. “It would have set a dangerous precedent for the future of green space,” Torres said. “It could have opened the floodgates to the privatization of parks in New York City, and so I’m proud that we defeated it.”

 

[As reported, it seems that precedent may already have been set in 2019 when a part of Mosholu Parkland was affected by the development of the Mosholu golf course clubhouse and parking lot along Jerome Avenue and East Gun Hill Road. Torres commented that obviously that decision was made long before he was in Congress and before the NY-15 district lines were redrawn to encompass Norwood. “The issue has never been raised with me or brought to my attention,” he said in part. “I am fiercely protective of public lands.”]

 

Representing one of the poorest congressional districts in America, Torres, who, as reported, along with other elected officials, was the target of a prior data breach, said he’s also “on a mission to radically reduce racially concentrated poverty in places like The Bronx.” As one of the six members of the CTC 6 coalition, he said he has championed the expansion of the child tax credit (CTC).

 

“In March of 2021, we passed the American Rescue Plan, and the cornerstone [..] was the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, which cut child poverty by 50%, not only in The Bronx but across the country,” Torres said. “The expansion was left to expire in December of 2021 because of Republican opposition, and so I am the co-lead on legislation that would restore the expansion of the Child Tax Credit so that we can reduce child poverty by 50%. There may be no policy in America that would have a broader and deeper effect in improving the lives of the American people than the Child Tax Credit.”

On housing affordability, Torres said he has introduced The ASAP Housing Act, explaining that a federal-based “Volume Cap” limits the amount of affordable housing that can be financed in America. The purpose of the ASAP Housing Act is to abolish that cap. “As far as I’m concerned, just like there is no cap on the amount of financing for the construction of new schools, there should be no cap on the construction of new housing,” he said, adding the law, if passed, could create “potentially millions of housing units” over the next decade, if passed.

 

HPD officials say housing is considered affordable if it costs about one-third or less of what the people living in the local area earn. Income eligibility for HPD’s affordable housing lotteries is based on Area Median Income (AMI). The AMI for all cities across the country is defined each year by HUD. The 2023 AMI for the New York City region is $127,100 for a three-person family (100% AMI). Given NY-15 is among the poorest boroughs in the country, we asked Torres, if he has any input into making AMI rates fairer for NY-15 residents and given that many affordable housing lotteries advertised by HPD are not affordable to Bronxites.

 

“I’m in favor of re-examining the definition of affordability,” Torres said in part, adding AMI shouldn’t be defined at the regional level, and the neighborhood level or even the household level would be more appropriate. “There’s no universe in which it is logical for The Bronx to have the same AMI as Rockland County,” he said. “An affordable rent should take up no more than 30% of your income.”

 

The congressman added that he supported the concept of “housing vouchers for all” which he said would radically reduce housing insecurity and homelessness. “I feel that every family struggling with homelessness or housing insecurity should have access to a housing voucher, which guarantees a rent of no more than 30% of gross adjusted income.”

 

He cited his chops as a public housing advocate saying when many public housing residents were abruptly displaced from their employment amid the COVID-19 pandemic and had accumulated around a half a billion dollars in rent arrears, he was instrumental in securing over $100 million for tenants to cover their back rent.

 

In terms of the challenges he faces to policymaking in D.C., which he had not faced as a councilman, Torres said legislating in Congress was more cumbersome, comparing it to a marathon. He cited the unicameral nature of the City Council where laws could be passed in a matter of weeks or months (like a sprint), versus laws which could take years or decades to pass in Congress due to their having to pass in both chambers. “It’s a long game,” he said.

 

We asked if part of the reason was because there were various add-ons to certain bills which not every elected official may agree with, as well as the need for political alliances. He said it was complicated because whereas the Democratic-led City Council was essentially a one-party institution, Republican opposition sometimes stalled Democratic priorities “or progressive” priorities in Congress.

 

“The Senate is a real challenge,” he said, giving an example of the passage in the House of Representatives of his bill regulating lithium-ion battery regulation, only for a Republican senator to veto the legislation due to his objections to a Product Safety Commission. Torres also decried the use the filibuster, a long-utilized Senate tactic of unlimited speaking time to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill within a given legislative timeframe. “It makes for a dysfunctional legislative process,” Torres said.

Given the increasingly polarized nature of American politics, we asked if he felt it would be easier or more difficult to progress with legislation if there were more than two main political parties. “I think if we removed the filibuster, it would change the dynamic,” he said. He said political alliances were “critical” in Congress, since legislating was a game of addition, not subtraction and coalitions were needed to pass laws.

 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) has frequently talked about how the majority of congressional representatives are millionaires. We asked if Torres felt most were out of touch with regular Americans, and how that potentially plays into policymaking. “I do not have anywhere near a million dollars,” he said in part. “I’m probably one of the poorest members of Congress. I do not come from a political dynasty. I do not even have a college degree.”

 

Norwood News has reported on criticism that Torres’ election campaigns have been substantially backed by The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbying group. We asked Torres if he felt it would be easier to run for office if everybody was held to the same standard in terms of the amount of money they could spend for their respective election campaigns.

 

He said if a public matching funds program similar to the one offered by New York was offered at federal level, he would have no issue with it, since he was able to utilize it successfully as a councilman. Torres said when Democrats were in control, they passed legislation in the House that would establish a system of matching funds and public financing of campaigns known as The People Act but it was filibustered in the Senate. Asked if under the bill, a cap had been included in the bill on the amount of funds that could be raised in any federal campaign, he said, “I do not think there was a cap.”

 

Having retained his seat with 82.7% of the vote in 2022, yet given his fervent support for Israel over the war in Gaza despite worldwide and local protests over the proportionality of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 Jewish people, and raped and kidnapped many others, we asked Torres how much of an impact he felt the war in Gaza was going to have on his reelection campaign.

 

He cited the “vibrant Jewish community in Riverdale” for whom he said the issue was immensely important. “They’ve nothing but overwhelming appreciation for the stance that I’ve taken against anti-Semitism,” Torres said, adding that 100% of constituents were never going to agree when a politician takes a position on a controversial issue. “In life, you have to do what you think is right, and then let the dice fall where they may.”

 

The congressman said, “It’s not a popularity contest; it’s about doing what I think is the right thing to do.” We said the average person doesn’t support anti-Semitism either, and the critique was more about the proportionality of Israel’s response to the attacks and U.S. support of it. [The Gaza Ministry for Health has estimated that over 40,000 Palestinians have died since Oct. 7, 2023. According to Oxfam International, the daily death rate in Gaza is higher than in any other major 21st century conflict.]

 

Torres responded, “We’ve spent far more in Ukraine. Most of that is not going to Israel.” He added that most of the military budget was spent on the United States. While technically, that may be true, Israel has received more foreign aid accumulatively over time, as the attached chart and article dated May 2024 from the Council of Foreign Relations shows.

 

PBS also reported last month that the U.S. has spent at least $17.9 billion on military aid for Israel according to a report by Brown University. It reported that an additional $4.86 billion has gone into U.S. military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, according to findings by The Associated Press.

 

We asked Torres if there had been any discussions on reallocating the annual average of 13.3% of the U.S. budget currently spent on the military to other areas e.g. social services. “I would be in favor,” he said. “I feel like the defense budget is bloated. We should certainly take a hard look at [it]. It’s unsustainable. It’s approaching a trillion dollars. I’m convinced that much of the defense budget is fraught with waste, abuse and fraud, and Congress should take a hard look at it.” Torres does not sit on the committee which oversees military spending.

 

Asked if he felt the issue would impact Vice President Harris’s chances of election, Torres said it had not shown itself to be the top electoral issue overall, and he felt “cautiously optimistic” that the presidential election [and the House] would be won by Democrats due to an expected overwhelming turn-out of female voters. He cited the economy, immigration, and abortion as the top-ranking electoral priorities for voters [according to research].

 

“Donald Trump is an existential threat to reproductive freedom in America,” Torres said. We mentioned how the pundits are saying the polling is very close. “If Vice President Harris were to take a guess, there is an Arab, Muslim and Palestinian vote in Michigan, but there’s also Jewish voters,” he said. “There’s also a Jewish vote in Pennsylvania, a Jewish vote in Arizona, a Jewish vote in Georgia, and so if the Party were to take an anti-Israel position, it would risk alienating decisive Jewish voters in a whole host of swing states.”

 

Of the Palestinian death toll, Torres has previously said in part, “Where did we get this notion that the Hamas-run, Gaza Ministry of Health is a reliable source whose reports should be accepted uncritically at face value?” British Medical Journal, The Lancet, reports that though the Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services,2 the UN, and WHO.

 

“These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry,3 which found claims of data fabrication implausible,4” The Lancet reported. We asked Torres for a comment and will share any updates we receive.

 

In making his case to the people of The Bronx, Torres said, “What I lack in formal credentials, I make up for in lived experience.” He said that “wisdom of lived experience” means he knows what it’s like to face housing and insecurity, to face poverty and inequality, to struggle with depression and substance abuse, to have family entangled with the criminal justice system. “I represent The Bronx, and The Bronx is the only home I’ve ever known,” he said. “It’s the only place where I’ve ever lived.”